________________________________________________________________________

Our text has been named "The Lord's Prayer" by Christians throughout the ages and is one of the most well-known passages of scripture. Children memorize it in Sunday School at a young age. Countless church goers thoughtlessly recite it routinely in church. The prayer has become very familiar to many.

The danger with becoming extremely familiar with something is that we tend to downplay it. There is nothing wrong with learning scripture and repeating verses, but we must also remind ourselves that there is a danger in familiarity. Jesus taught that we must guard against becoming so familiar with the things of God that we treat them carelessly:

How could someone take something as precious as pearls and throw them to pigs? By allowing familiarity to rob us of the importance of what we have! In Leviticus 10:1, we find that Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, became so comfortable with the things of God and seeing fire fall from heaven that they one day carelessly offered "strange fire" that God had not requested. This time the fire falling consumed them because of their mistake. Their only sin was that they had grown careless with the precious commandments of God and allowed their familiarity to cause them to err against God.

We as Pentecostals are used to the fire of the Holy Ghost falling in our services. But if we are not careful, we can get so familiar and "used" to feeling the presence of God that we take it for granted and "cast our pearls before the swine!" Where before, we were quick to yield to the presence of God when we felt it, and praise and worship God until we did walk into the presence of God, if we are not careful, we can get to a place where if we feel the presence of God in church, then great, and if not, well, I'm not going to push through in worship until I do. As with Nadab and Abihu, the problem with people growing familiar with the fire of the Holy Ghost is that they become dead, spiritually dead! We must guard ourselves that we not become so familiar with the presence and things of God that we lose our interest and zeal and worship!

Familiarity leads to a lack of "oomph" in prayer as well. When a preacher announces that he is going to teach on prayer, there is something in some people that gets ready for a boring lesson. When a preacher reads the Lord's Prayer as his text, there is something in our minds that says "I already know this, so I do not have to concentrate too hard on this lesson." "I already pray." Yes, but the question is are you praying effectively!?! Are you praying according to how God wants you to pray? And have you become so familiar with the concept of prayer that you are praying half-heartedly? Why do you pray? If you pray only out of obligation or tradition or habit, then your prayers are not as they should be. Let's take a moment and compare our prayers and focus with the Lord's prayers and see if they match. Even though you may be familiar and even able to quote the Lord's prayer, let's view as if it were the first time.

First of all, the "Lord's prayer" is not a good name for this passage of scripture because Jesus is not praying but is teaching the disciples to pray. It would be more correctly named "the Lord's lesson on prayer." It is a guide and a teaching tool to learn how to pray. It was never meant to be repeated verbatim. If Jesus' intention was that people simply repeat the words of this prayer over and over again, then why is it never repeated again in the Early Church? We do find people's prayers recorded in the New Testament, but never a verbatim, word-for-word repeat of this prayer. The reason that Jesus did not want us simply to repeat the phrases from memory is that once a person gets that familiar with something, the words tend to lose their meanings. Many churches recite this prayer every Sunday, but how many of the people ever stop and think about what they are saying? They are praying with their words and not with their heart!

The disciples came to Jesus and asked Him to teach them how to pray. He responded by saying "after this manner, pray ye." In other words, "here is an illustrative guide to prayer." Most of us know that it is Jesus who answers our prayer. The scriptures make it very clear that He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That makes this passage of scripture very remarkable in that the King is giving us the correct way for us to approach Him! Why would He bother teaching us a particular method, if He was not going to answer it? It is very obvious that we should model our prayers after these verse because Jesus will respond to prayers that are obedient to His own instruction! With all of this in mind, let's go through "the Lord's lesson on prayer." As we go, ask yourself, "do I pray this way?"

________________________________________________________________________

First things first. The attitude that you begin praying with is very important and the first word of the Lord's lesson is a lesson in itself. He says "our" instead of "my." Too many people begin prayer with an extremely selfish motive and a plan to pray only for their personal needs and their wants. They have a "my Father" attitude. But Jesus said pray "OUR Father." In other words, enter into prayer with the realization that God is watching over other people besides you and what you desire personally may not be what is best for everybody else! We should enter into prayer with an unselfish attitude and the term "our" instead of "my" shows that we should pray acknowledging that God watches over others and that our personal requests do not take priority over others!

After our attitude is right, then the first thing in prayer that we should do is acknowledge God's "sovereignty." We must remember that He is our Father in heaven and is not in earth like we are. That is a reminder that He alone is God. "Sovereignty" means that God is God all by Himself and can do anything He wants to, when He wants to, without having to consult with anybody else before He does it or explain anything to anybody. The United States of America is a "sovereign nation" in that we do not have to have anybody's permission to do anything that we want to, because we are powerful enough that nobody is going to mess with us. Of course, America tends to forget that they are subject to God and need His approval and that is why immorality is king in America today. We need to pray for our country that we will really be "one nation under God."

God is sovereign. We are not. We see things through a narrow point of view and through limited knowledge. What that means is that sometimes God is going to answer our prayers differently than we wanted. When that happens, we cannot allow ourselves to become bitter, but we must trust that God acted the way that He did because in the big picture which only He can see, it was best. We must approach prayer with God's sovereignty in view. I will pray for what I feel is His will, but, ultimately, I will trust God that whatever He does is just and right. God cannot fail, so if the answer to your prayer is not what you thought it should be, then know that God did a work but did so with the bigger picture in mind. And one day you will understand even if now you cannot understand why! There was a song that hit the charts a few years ago that said "some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers." I know what the songwriter meant, but God always answers prayers. The correct way to say it would be "some of God's greatest gifts are prayers that God answered differently than what I wanted." There have many times that I have thanked God that He chose wisely and sovereignly to not answer a prayer that I had prayed because He saw something in my future that I did not!

The next step in your prayer should be praise and very specific praise: praise for the revealed name of God! The word for "Hallowed" in the Greek literally means "separated from the earth or from earthly things." It is used in scripture to denote things that are holy and separated as being only unto God. The priests in the Old Testament were considered "hallowed" unto God. The things in the temple were considered "hallowed" and thus were to be used ONLY for the things of God! You couldn't take some of the incense from the tabernacle home with you to help cover the smell of last week's garbage that you forgot to take out because it was "hallowed" and only to be used in reference to God!

And so the next step in prayer is to remind ourselves of how "hallowed" and special the name of God is! That name is Jesus! Peter and John put it this way:

There is no other name but the name of Jesus that will save you! Paul wrote:

When you get a revelation that the name of Jesus is THE revealed name of God, then you can worship God like you never have before and pray like you never have before! The prophet Isaiah prophesied of the coming of the Saviour and what His name would represent:

When you call on Jesus Christ you are calling upon the everlasting Father, the mighty God, and the one who can answer all of your needs! But you must pray with more than your words, you must pray with your heart! You need to understand and have a revelation of how "hallowed" the name of Jesus is! It is the greatest name ever given because it represents everything that God is and has ever been! Jesus told His disciples at the end of His ministry when they were finally getting a revelation that He was God in flesh among them:

What did Jesus mean? They had cast out devils in His name and healed blind people in His name and even baptized people in His name! But they did it without understanding really who Jesus was! After the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the receiving of the Holy Ghost, they began to realize that Jesus Christ was much more than a Messiah and a powerful man, but that He was the one God "manifest in the flesh!" He was God, robed in flesh, walking among His creation! And it was after that they received this revelation that their prayers became much more powerful! They got a revelation of how holy and how mighty and how "hallowed" the name of Jesus is!

The next step is the realization and proclamation of God's kingdom. Jesus came to set up a spiritual kingdom. It is the Apostolic church in action allowing the Holy Ghost to move. God's kingdom is not a religion or one particular organization, but is made up of God's will and agenda in Spirit-filled believers who are allowing the Holy Ghost to flow through them.

So the next step in prayer is to pray for God's kingdom to be revealed upon earth. Pray for your ministers and your fellow saints that God's Spirit and power would flow through them and that they would be used of God today. That is kingdom praying! Pray that God would fill many people with the Holy Ghost! Pray that people would get a revelation of His name and who He is and the power in Jesus name baptism! Pray that God would stir up other churches that need a spark of heavenly power. Pray for God to change people's lives and deliver them from drug and alcohol addictions. Pray for a little heaven to come to earth in our community and for God to put people in our paths that we could minister to and to anoint us with faith and power so that we can make a difference. That is kingdom praying and we need more people praying for the kingdom of God! Too many or our prayers are "our kingdom come." We are praying for only what directly affects our personal life, but we need to get beyond "our kingdom" and pray for "God's kingdom!"

The first mention of the earth in the Lord's lesson on prayer. The next step of prayer is to pray that our wills are submitted to God's will. I read recently were a mighty prayer warrior wrote: "the primary objective of prayer is for God to help us submit our will to His." If you miss this part of your prayer then you miss the whole point! We must submit our will to God in every area and allow His will to be done! If you truly submitted your will to God's in prayer then you are not going to have an attitude toward someone when you finish praying! If you truly submitted your will to God's then there will not be a commandment of scripture that you are planning to disobey when you get up. If you truly submitted your will to God's then there is no other agenda that you esteem higher and more important than what God's will for your life is.

The problem is that many Christians pray the words "God I submit all of myself to you," but don't actually do it! Don't just say the words, but pray about situations that you are struggling with God's will in your life. Maybe you have a situation at work that is causing you stress and it seems that God won't solve the problem, you need to pray for God to help you respond to that situation or adversary as a Christian should and to help you to love those that are causing you grief. At this point in your prayer, you should pray at about specific situations in your life and pray, "God, either change them or change me so that I will be able to live for you and glorify you with my actions in them!" You are praying for your fleshly will to be submitted to God's will in specific areas of your life! This is the time of the prayer to bring up personal requests and needs. But do so with the attitude that "Lord, I am praying according to your will!"

In the next part, you are saying "through your grace and Spirit, give me exactly what I will need to make it through this day." "Daily bread" is a unique word in the Greek that denotes exactly what kind and the amount of food a person needs for nourishment and survival each day. God knows what is going to happen in that day. Some days you will need more nourishment than others. Your spiritual needs are going to be different each day. Some days you may come across an unbeliever and need an anointing to be able to effectively witness. Some days you may need faith to keep trusting in God despite bad news or bad situations. Some days you may need God to work a great miracle. Other days you may need to just be faithful through everyday life. You do not know in advance what you are going to need, so you are praying for God to give you exactly what you need to meet whatever the day brings! God will honor that request. If at this point you feel directed by God to study something or look something up in scripture, then be sure to do it! It may be the very verse or subject that you will need later! There have been many times in my life that I felt led in prayer to study something and then later on was asked a question about that particular subject. I looked brilliant and really smart and actually all I had done was be sensitive when praying "Give me my daily bread!"

The next step is to ask forgiveness. The sin problem is dealt with by an appeal to God's mercy. Sin is presented here as a "debt." It really is a debt that we cannot pay and so the only way that we can get forgiveness is to ask for forgiveness. Get in the habit of repenting and searching your heart everyday whether you have sinned or not. In fact, the first prayer that I pray in the morning and the last words that I say to God in the evening are prayers of repentance. I have realized that I am nothing on my own and without the merciful hand of God to help me, then I will not make it!

The other part of forgiveness is that we must also forgive others their debts to us! True forgiveness is not forgetting, but is simply absolving or removing the debt from a situation. In other words, if someone has hurt me, then I truly forgive them by not holding them accountable or treating them any different because of the offence. If you say the words "I forgive you" but walk on eggshells around them or continue to "read into" every phrase that they say, then you have not truly forgiven them! And the scriptures are very clear: if we will not forgive others, then God will not forgive us! Pray until you can release someone from the feeling that "they owe me because of what they have done." That is true forgiveness!

The next step is a plea for spiritual guidance. We are asking God to give us spiritual direction and to guide us in the paths that we should walk. The Psalms teach us that the Word of God is "a light unto our path." We are asking God to help us walk according to His Word and to help us choose good paths and help us to follow His leading!

For this to work, we must be learning God's Word. In other words, we cannot obey what we have not learned! At this time in prayer we should be asking God to help us to better obey His Word's instruction. You just asked God to forgive you of shortcomings and sins in the last part, so now ask God to help you change some things in your life so that you will not repeat the same mistakes. If your sin came from a result of going to the wrong place, or opening yourself up to something, then ask God to help you to have the power to stop going to those places or opening yourself up to them. This is an appropriate place to find a scripture about whatever you are battling and ask God to help you obey that scripture! Sometimes when I pray, if I am battling a certain area in my life, I will write down some scriptures that deal with that situation and ask God to help me obey them! The Holy Ghost, if you will let it, will help you obey God's Word!

You then move on to a plea for final deliverance and completion of our freedom. "Deliver us" literally means "break our chains." In other words, you are asking God to change your life completely and not just give you forgiveness over a particular act but to change you so that the areas of your life that are still bound with sinful actions, will be completely broken! Of course, to pray this you've got to desire to be delivered! You are praying "God change me. Change my attitude and personality and lifestyle to be more like you!" I went through this time in my life right after I graduated from High School when I realized that the jokes and things that I thought were funny were things that God despised. I prayed for almost a year for God to allow my sense of humor to be Godly and to teach me how to have fun and laugh the way that He would want me to! Some of you need to pray that same prayer: "let the things that I draw pleasure from and enjoy participating in be pleasing to you, oh God!" It worked, God changed my sense of humor and changed what appealed to me!

You end with praise again but this time praising and worshipping God for what He has done, and for all of His power, and because He alone is worthy to receive all credit! Now is the time to go ahead and give Him the credit and praise for what you have asked for even though you may not have even seen it come to pass yet! There is power in praising God for things that we have not yet seen Him do, because it causes us to think in terms of faith in God! And God ALWAYS responds to faith! Thank Him for what He has done and then praise Him for what He is going to do! If you really praise Him with your heart, then you will feel God's presence come in and you will know that He has heard your prayers! You began with praise for who He really is and for His name and you are ending with praise for what He has done and is doing!

End with a pledge to worship God forever and unceasingly. The Greek word that Jesus used for "forever" here is another unique Greek word which means "for eternity." End your prayer by reminding God that you want to live forever with Him one day and you will begin by serving Him completely today! We would be much less affected by the world if we lived our lives with eternity in mind! Commit to God that you want to serve Him forever!

And then end with a resounding "AMEN!" It means "let it be as has been spoken!" What you are saying when you say "amen" to a preacher is "let it happen exactly like he is speaking" or "let what the word of God says happen in my life!" Amen! "Let it be!" You end your praise with a resolve to live according to what you have prayed! In other words, we cannot do God "lip service" and pray one thing and live another, but by saying "amen" you are pledging to live according to the words that you have spoken!

________________________________________________________________________

In our other text, Paul wrote to the church in Philippi and said:

If, instead of worrying about things, we will take them to God in prayer and pray according to the lesson that Jesus taught, then we will find that God will give us a great peace which goes beyond our own understanding and will also protect our hearts and minds to stay in love with Jesus and to keep us on the road to heaven! That is a promise! A promise for those who will learn to pray!